Shifting Existence
by Sins And Echoes
Summary: When Astrid's sister Lyra dies trying to stop Lysandre and Team Flare from bringing about the apocalypse, Astrid believes her world has ended. Little does she know she has entered into a brave new world where tragedy and death await around every turn of the road? WARNING:MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH **Hiatus**
1. Schism

Her world ended last year. Most people would say it didn't truly but they did not understand what had happened. Phrases like "it will get better" or "time heals all wounds," meant very little in light of what had happened. Those phrases couldn't bring sound to her father's silence or drown out the heart wrenching sound of her mother's sobs. Those phrases would not bring her sister back.

Lyra had died saving Kalos, she had died a hero. But her little sister would have given all those accolades, all the honor brought to her family in order to see her dear sister's return.

Lyra had died in Lysandre Labs, her full pokemon team by her side until moments before the end. Moments before she overloaded the laser, Lyra had recalled all her pokemon save one. The Xerneas she had befriended stayed by her side and refused to return to its ball. So as Lyra had grabbed Lysandre and got ready to wipe both of them from the face of our world, she draped her belt of pokeballs around the Xerneas' neck, and ordered it to save her team and her friends. The Xerneas heeded her final wish, saving all of them before the labs exploded taking with it the lives of Lyra and Lysandre.

No solace was given to Lyra's family either for no remains were ever found in the wreckage of the labs. It was theorized that the laser had burned too hot and vaporized any and all remains of Lyra and Lysandre.

So here she was a year later, still mourning her sister, when the effects of the laser started. When her whole world shifted even more. For Lyra's sacrifice had been in vain, Lysandre had succeeded in bringing about the end of the world as they knew it.

Astrid had been out with her torchic Coal when it had happened, when the first signs of the coming apocalypse had taken effect. Coal had been the final son of Blaze, Lyra's Blaziken, born right before Lyra had taken Blaze and the rest of her team to the Pokemon League and won. Coal had been Lyra's last gift to Astrid before her death, she had wanted her sister to start a pokemon journey of her own and had hoped eventually that Astrid would challenge her in a League match in the future with Coal by her side.

Coal was Astrid's last connection to Lyra and Astrid had taken to spending most of her time with the little torchic. Sure Lyra's team was still in the house, but they rarely were taken out of their pokeballs anymore. They rarely wanted to come out, and Astrid's parents did not have the heart to release them. Professor Sycamore offered to take them, but when the team did come out they did offer some solace to the grieving family. Even ill tempered Blaze would do his best to help his trainer's grieving mother with the cooking and heating of their home.

The only member of the team that had not been seen for over a year had been Quintessence, the Xerneas that had saved Lyra's pokemon and friends. Occasionally Astrid thought she saw a glimpse of the legendary pokemon but she normally just chalked it up to a trick of the light, for the image of the deerlike legendary of life was gone before it could truly register.

Astrid had experienced such a sighting on the day she experienced the first symptom. She had been out with Coal, trying to escape the depressing atmosphere of her home when suddenly she heard a voice from beside her.

"... I just wish you would stop moping around. Lyra wanted you to do better things than this…."

Astrid whipped her head around trying to find the source of the voice but saw no one. "Show yourself, how dare you tell me what my sister would or would not want! You have no right to make assumptions such as that, you didn't know her!"

"Oh yes I did, almost as well as you did! She was my trainer first after all!" The voice was coming from Coal who was looking up at her sternly. "And you know what I am saying is true! She wanted more for us Astrid!"

"You're…. you're talking. Like a human," was all that Astrid managed to get out, still baffled by the fact that her torchic was speaking to her. She had never heard of pokemon talking to their trainers in real life, sure it happened in all the myths and some crazies still claimed that they could speak to pokemon but they were obviously not right in the head.

"No you are speaking pokemon, and rather atrociously. Surely you were taught to speak better in human. Your sentence structure is terrible." Coal scolded, clearly overlooking that his trainer was speaking pokemon. "Though I guess you are doing ok for a human, you kind hardly ever can speak to us. Heck even your sister couldn't do it, she just learned to read our body language but you…. you can actually speak to us. Who taught you? And why have you feigned stupidity for all these years?"

"No one… I couldn't before today. I don't know what happened." Astrid stuttered baffled by the sudden change. As far as she knew no one in her family had ever had the ability to speak to pokemon. "Perhaps mom or dad would have an idea of why this is happening. Let's head home and try and figure this out."

She turned and began to run hurriedly home, hoping that her parents had an answer for her. Coal matched her step for step, clearly also confused and eager to figure out what was happening.

However when she reached home an unpleasant sight awaited her. Her home town of Vaniville was under the attack of countless wild pokemon.


	2. Severance

**~Author's Note~**

 **So this fic is going to be following Nuzlocke rules, at least for the Kalos portion of the fic. Yes this means as I write I am also playing Pokemon Y, so I am going to need some editing time and play time between chapters. Now the story will not follow the storyline of Y exactly, the game is more of a template than anything else. But I do want to notate the rules I will be following.**

 **If a Pokemon faints it dies.**

 **Only one Pokemon may be caught per area. Different floors of caves count as different areas. If the first Pokemon faints there are no second catch chances.**

 **Shinies are an exception.**

 **No repeat Pokemon.**

 **No use of revives.**

 **No use of Wondertrade or event Pokemon. (Exception: Torchic [Storyline Purposes])**

 **Pokemon can be accepted from NPCs.**

 **No use of the Experience Share.**

 **Coal's POV**

We ran back to the town we had called home for years, only to find it under attack by countless hordes of pokemon. It appeared as though even those who were once considered trained seemed to be turning on their trainers.

Our small town was in chaos, the house that had once belonged to Lyra's friend Calem had been destroyed by a Chesnaught who was making its way through the rest of the town as we neared our house. Luckily the beast didn't seem to see us. I had brought fire to my beak just in case but I doubted that I could take down such a beast, fate was on our side that day and I did not need to unleash the embers I had kindled.

"Hurry get to your house, get to safety. Before that beast turns its attention back towards us!" I whisper fiercely to my trainer, hoping that Astrid will hear my words. As she started to heed them, I turned to her house and something immediately felt wrong. Suddenly, I knew Astrid should not enter that building, that it offered no shelter from the chaos this world. It would be worse inside, I could feel it in the tips of my wing feathers.

As we neared, I saw that the door had been ripped from its hinges. Something very large had forced its way into the house. I tried to place myself in the way of Astrid's progression but she pushed past me. And then I saw the horror that waited for us inside that house.

Astrid's father lie just inside the threshold of the door, his body broken and trampled. He had been trying to stop something from breaking in, but failed due to his much smaller size. It took Astrid a few moments to realize what she was seeing upon entering the building, but when she did she let out a heart wrenching scream. One that was answered by a roar, something so feral and unfeeling that it was impossible to ignore.

Astrid ran forward, past her father's mangled body. She knew that noise, had known it all her life. I knew it too. It was a Rhydon call, one that was terrifyingly wild but a Rhydon none the less. She ran through the hallways of her house, passed the kitchen toward her parent's room. I followed closely behind. Astrid only paused momentarily at her sister's alter to grab a random pokeball. I could only hope that it wouldn't hold a pokemon that would be affected by this madness.

Astrid was inside her parents' room within a few steps. It was a large room but even so it was dwarfed by the gigantic Rhydon that had broken in. The beast was currently focused on her mother, and was looking at its old trainer with murder in its eyes. A Fletchling lie dying at its feet, feebly attempting to rise to its trainer's defense but it was clear the poor pokemon would not be fighting any battles ever again.

I was getting ready to fight when I heard the release of a pokeball, saw the flash as Astrid hit the button coded to her family's genetic markers and released one of her sister's pokemon. A jet of water blasted into the Rhydon followed by a tail enshrouded in water. The attacker focused on the Rhydon's face, and kept it immersed in watery attacks. The Rhydon began thrashing as it tried to get out of the water but its attacker did not let up. After several water based attacks, the Rhydon fell to the destroyed floor of the bedroom with a crash.

I turn, ready to face our savior should it turn out to be another threat. I found myself faced with the form of Deadpool, Lyra's Goodra. He bent down to check if the Rhydon was in fact dead before going over to comfort Lyra and Astrid's mother. The poor woman was sobbing out of sheer fright but other than a broken arm and some minor cuts and bruises she seemed fine.

Astrid, after checking over her mother, turned to Deadpool. "Thank you, I didn't know if you would help. Not after mom's Rhydon turned against us. I saw what it did to dad. I was so worried that you would have turned too."

Astrid's mother gave her a strange look, she seemed to have worked her way out of her frightened stupor enough to grasp the surreality of the situation. "Astrid who are you talking to? I am the only one here. And you saved me not the other way around."

"No mom, Deadpool saved us. I am thanking him. And he does understand, all pokemon are intelligent enough to understand us. It's just us who cannot understand them. Well actually, just you right now. I don't know why but I can speak to them now."

Astrid's mother seemed to be at a loss for words and really I couldn't blame her. It wasn't often that your daughter confessed to understanding pokemon. The woman simply nodded and started to get up.

Astrid rushed over, and made her mother sit down again. "No mom, it isn't safe out there, not yet. There was…. was a rough Chesnaught and Arceus knows what else. Let me make sure it is safe first, I have an idea."

With that she ran out of the room, I followed. Astrid had stopped at Lyra's alter. She gathered the four remaining pokeballs from their places of honor and ran outside. Once outside, Astrid release the pokemon from their confines.

"Please I know I am not your trainer, but Vaniville Town needs your help. And if Lyra meant anything to you at all, defend her home."

It was my father who was out of his pokeball first, he and a Klefki went after the rough Chesnaught and the pokemon that had gathered with it intent on chasing them off. After covering the body of Astrid's father, Deadpool joined them in their fight.

Lyra's Aurorus, Ampharos and Gengar ran off to defend another home from a Delphox and its team of rampaging pokemon.

This left Astrid and I to gather up survivors and escort them to safe haven. Most were wary at first, after all I was a pokemon but once they saw that I wasn't feral and that I was like the pokemon who were fighting off their own kind for the sake of the humans.

Eventually Lyra's team returned and with them an injured Professor Sycamore. He could barely stand but was still alive which was more than could be said for the rest of the town. All and all maybe ten towns members survived of the seventy or so who lived in Vaniville.

 **xxxxXXXXxxxx**

It took days before we could establish a connection with the outside world. Lyra's team, as well as Astrid and I, managed to barricade Vaniville from further attack and we all made sure to set patrols in order to take note of any damages that occurred in the perimeter.

Upon reestablishment of the connection to the rest of the world, we found very few towns and cities had fared better than us. Shauna was helping Lumiose City recover from an onslaught of electrical pokemon. Calem had helped the League maintain their stronghold against the pokemon who had taken residence in Victory Road. Sycamore had not been able to reach Trevor or Tierno, last anyone had heard they had disappeared on Route 7.

As Sycamore began to get better, he began to request more and more time with Lyra's pokemon team as well as with Astrid and I.

Sycamore theorized that Lyra's pokemon team had become immune to the Pokemon Madness thanks to their exposure to the legendary pokemon Xerneas and that this exposure had acted as a vaccine against whatever was affecting the current population of pokemon. As for me and Astrid he had very few theories as neither of us had truly interacted with Quintessence the Xerneas.

However he did theorize that the Madness was caused by the Team Flare Laser at Lysandre Labs and that Lyra had not destroyed it in time as originally thought. The explosion must have sent out shockwaves that initially suppress the laser's effects but had since worn off allowing the Madness to manifest.

Sycamore thought that a possible alteration of the laser would work to reverse the effects of the Madness. But so far no trainer past or present could keep pokemon in line besides my Astrid. Lyra's team was behaved but they didn't truly listen to any of the adults, they believed that their talents were best served apart from the humans. They feared that they themselves might eventually turn despite the supposed vaccine. They occasionally spoke to Astrid so she could communicate to the other humans what their intentions were. The team would stay and protect Vaniville in Lyra's memory but they could not embark on the journey to the place where their trainer had died.

My Astrid, my lovely Astrid then volunteered. After all I still listened to her, and she had changed in the months since the initial attacked. She had become slightly rougher, almost a feral child, preferring the company of pokemon to that of humans. I mean I understand, we pokemon are great but Sycamore and her mother were beginning to get worried.

Soon after she volunteered to go, Sycamore taught Astrid all that she needed to know about rebuilding and reinitiating the laser. As a parting gift, he gave her a pokeball. Contained inside was a Bulbasaur. Astrid named him Seymour, and took to him instantly. A little brave and brash, he was an ok addition to our team and I was looking forward to traveling with him as he seemed quite loyal to Astrid already.

Astrid's mother also presented Astrid with a pokemon for her mission. A young Froakie named Vlassi, the only pokemon whose pokeball had survived the Rhydon invading our home uncrushed. Vlassi had belong to Astrid's father and was the younger sibling of Lyra's Greninja. He would also be a valid companion for the journey to come.

And so with our new companions of Seymour and Vlassi, Astrid and I embarked out on our journey to stop the ever encroaching Madness that seemed to have taken over our world.


End file.
